AT THE MOVIES WITH KASEY BUTCHER
As the reader may have gleaned from my reviews of The Ring, The Grudge, and Red Dragon, I’m kind of a chicken. In spite of this, I still love a good horror movie, especially one that involves a mystery along with the scares. The Skeleton Key starring Kate Hudson (Raising Helen) provided that combination and it didn’t even give me nightmares.
In The Skeleton Key, Caroline (Hudson) is a hospice nurse looking to do her job in an environment that is more about caring than about business. To achieve this goal, she takes a job working for Violet and Ben Devereaux (Gena Rowlands, John Hurt) at their creepy old house in the Louisiana swamps. Ben has suffered a stroke and cannot speak or walk. Violet is a traditional old southern woman who isn’t too keen on having a nurse around. Nonetheless, Violet still greets Caroline with southern hospitality and even presents her with her own skeleton key that opens any door in the big old house. The key leads Caroline to more trouble than she’d expect when she uses it to find a hoodoo (voodoo without religion) room in the attic. The black magic may have been the cause of Ben’s stroke and Caroline begins to fear for her own safety. She’ll be safe, however, as long as she doesn’t believe in the magic’s power.
The Skeleton Key delivers good thrills and scares with the intrigue of a mystery throughout. I liked it. It also has a surprise ending that had me practically shouting “no way!” Kate Hudson’s performance is not stellar, but she does a good job creating her character’s Nancy Drew persona. Her constantly streaky eyeliner doesn’t hurt the horror atmosphere either.
The movie starts out pretty scary. My palms were seriously sweating, but as the mystery of what is really going on with the hoodoo and Ben’s condition starts to unfold, the scares back off a little bit until the end. This ebb and flow of scares really works, keeping the audience on the edge without scarring anyone too badly.
The cinematography creates a setting that is creepy, but not so much so that it is unrealistic. It is believable that this old house has a dark past, but it isn’t over the top so much that The Skeleton Key comes off as just another haunted house movie. I found The Skeleton Key to be so much more. For its intrigue and creativity I rate it four out of five.
This time three years ago, my first review, Signs, ran in The Waynedale News. Writing for this newspaper has provided me with so many wonderful opportunities in my education and my future career. I would like to thank Robert Stark and Cindy Cornwell for that opportunity. I would also like to thank you for reading my column. In light of my moving to Ball State University to study English, Dillon Kimmel will be taking over the movie reviews. He’s a great person and a great journalist and I know he’ll do a good job.
Thanks, Waynedale!
> Read More Information About Us
> More Articles Written By Our Staff
- Celebrating 20 Years Of Community At The Stand - April 12, 2024
- First Positive Case Of Chronic Wasting Disease In Indiana - April 12, 2024
- Southwest Allen County Schools Embark On Major Tree Plantings - April 12, 2024